Mae asked what books do I like, and the answer is ALL kinds! I love all sorts of books! Some books that I’ve read recently that you might enjoy are:

Faery Rebels: Spell Hunter by R. J. Anderson

The Hunchback Assignments by Arthur Slade

The Evolution of Calpurnia Tate

Thief of Attolia, Queen of Attolia, and King of Attolia  by Megan Whalen Turner

The Lost Conspiracy by Francis Hardinge

The Swam Maiden by Heather Tomlinson

Incarceron by Catherine Fisher

The Boneshaker by Kate Milford

Mae also asked which Egyptian ruler I thought was the coolest, and that is hard! Hatshepsut is very cool, not least because she was one of the very few women pharaohs. Thutmose III was a pretty strong ruler, too. And Ramses II was an amazing builder. Gosh. I don’t know if I could pick ONE favorite, but those are three of my favorites.

Adriana, I wouldn’t say that the Theodosia books are about Egyptology, but Theo’s parents are Egyptologists, and she deals a lot with Egyptian artifacts and research. The next book is called, THEODOSIA AND THE LAST PHARAOH.

Amelia, I think ideas are absolutely EVERYWHERE. They are all around us, we have only to open our eyes and pay attention. I have a harder time not being bombarded with ideas. Or forgetting cool ones that I don’t want to forget.   Like you, I have a small notebook I carry with me everywhere, and then I have a lot of notebooks all over the house full of ideas I’d like to turn into a story someday.

One of the things I do, since I have so very many ideas, is to try and be sure an idea is really story-worthy; that it truly has enough meat on its bones to make a good dramatic story. Sometimes ideas are just that, ideas, and don’t really have enough conflict or drama to be developed into an entire book. History and ancient civilizations and anthropology are great sources of ideas for me.

And as for tips for writing, well that is a huge subject. I write a LOT about the writing process on my author blog (http://rllafevers.blogspot.com) and have some tips on the Writer’s Page of my author website, but I will  do a separate post on some writing tips in the next week or two.

There has been some movie interest in Theodosia, but nothing that’s actually gotten off the ground. Believe me, if and when that happens, I will shout it from the rooftops!

And as for how many books are planned, well, I’m not sure. I have tons more ideas for Theodosia adventures so we’ll just have to see how it goes. A lot of that isn’t really up to me, but is decided by the publisher based on sales numbers and that sort of thing.

Thanks for all the great questions!

Thanks so much for all the great questions in the comments! And keep them coming! I will be answering a few each week.

From Kaitlyn: How are the Nathaniel Fludd Books coming?

Very well, thank you! I have finished up the fourth one and have just received a copy of the cover for it. Here’s a peek at the new cover.

Also, Kaitlyn asked if I have any new ideas for books, and I do! It’s just that I don’t really talk about them until they’re finished, so I can’t say much. Sorry!

Collin, there will be at least five Theodosia books and probably more. As always, with everything in publishing, it depends on sales numbers. The final title for Book Four is THEODOSIA AND THE LAST PHARAOH, and it comes out May of 2011. The working title of Book Five is THEODOSIA AND THE FLAME OF SEKHMET, but that is subject to change. It will be coming out sometime in 2012, most likely.

kalifaziz asked when the next contest is, and I have to think one up first! But you’re right, we are definitely due for one.

kalifaziz aso said: “the ben ue bird is the perfect energy that created the world. you should really be careful for immature reasearch from rambontious anthropologist’

You know, there are actually a number of theories on the origins of the benu bird. Most of what we know we are guessing from clues left behind or trying to decipher earlier writings. Also remember, that Theodosia was working with information from 100 years ago. We have learned about archaeology and interpreting the past since then. So just because Theo’s story of the origin of the benu bird is different from yours, doesn’t make it immature research. She is just using different sources.

Okay boys and girls, I know I have only been able to post here every month or so, but now that I’ve met so many of my deadlines, I would like to post here more often. One of the things that would help me is knowing what YOU’D like to hear about. Do you have any questions about the books (ones that don’t include spoilers!) or about the writing process or about anything at all. I’ll do my best to answer them. Leave your questions in the comments and I’ll use them for blog topics in the next few weeks.

I’ve also done some updating of the site, most notably adding information about school visits on the Teacher and Librarian pageI wan since I get asked that question so often, and links to a number of interviews I’ve done on the About the Author page.

And no, they don’t really have anything to do with each other.

There has been a fair amount of confusion in the comments so I thought I’d post here to clarify.

The third Theodosia book, THEODOSIA AND THE EYES OF HORUS, is out now.

The fourth Theodosia book, THEODOSIA AND THE LAST PHARAOH, will be out May of 2011.  Hopefully that will clear things up for those of you wondering when the next Theo book will be out.

And now for the owl, because Theo readers are smart and clever and owls are smart and clever, this one especially so. I never knew owls could be so versatile!

P.S. Also, if you leave your comments on really old posts, it is harder for me to find and respond to them.

For all you budding Egyptologists out there, I thought this article was fascinating. It mulls over the possibility that Cleopatra did not die from the bite of an asp, but from poison instead! bit.ly/dm5XlK

And as if that weren’t enough ancientness and history in the news, another article talks about the discovery that the ancient beast, Leviathan, was real! And they have the fossils to prove it! (Although really, any of the beastologists from the Nathaniel Fludd books could have told them that.) http://bit.ly/cGv5tP

Seriously though, this is why I love writing historical fantasy. There are just so many mysteries out there we don’t really know the answers to!

A lot of the emails I get have asked me about the new series I’m writing in addition to Theodosia, so I thought I’d mention it here. It’s called, NATHANIEL FLUDD, BEASTOLOGIST, and tells the story of Nate Fludd, whose parents are lost at sea so he is sent off to live with a mysterious unknown relative who turns out to be the world’s last remaining beastologist. It is now Nate’s job to help take care of the world’s mythical beasts.

I have had a blast writing this series. I’ve always adored animals, and we had a ton of them when I was a kid, including some very exotic ones; a goat (we lived in a city) chipmunks, about eight cats, three dogs, chickens, an anteater, and for a few brief weeks, two baby bear cubs. So yeah, animals were a huge part of my childhood.

The idea for this series came about when two different things I’d been reading about kind of crashed into each other. I’d read a newspaper article about a couple of new species of animals that had been discovered in some wild, desolate place. It made me realize how there really are so many pockets of uncharted territory in our world, who knew what lived there?

I was also doing some research for a medieval book I was working on and stumbled across medieval bestiaries, books that documented all the creatures the medieval scholars believed existed at that time, and I was struck by how many mythical beasts had once been thought to really exist.

And then I thought, well, who’s to say they didn’t exist?

Thus Nathaniel Fludd, Beastologist, was born.

Now a warning; these are much shorter, smaller, easier to read books that the Theodosia books. I specifically wanted to write something for slightly younger readers. However, many Theodosia readers (kids and adults) have enjoyed them. Just be forewarned that if you’ve read Theodosia, you can probably read these books in about an hour each. The first one, The Flight of the Phoenix came out in September last year. The second one, The Basilisk’s Lair, came out this week!

So that’s what I do when I’m not working on Theodosia or writing blog entries.

Okay, it looks like we’ve got the details finalized for the upcoming East Coast Book Tour.

Here are the places I’ll be:

Monday, May 17 3:30 – 5:00 at The Children’s Book Store in Baltimore, MD

Tuesday, May 18, 10:30 a.m. Politics and Prose, Washington DC

Wednesday, May 19, 4:00 p.m. Curious George Bookstore, Boston, Massechussetts

Thursday, May 20, 6:00 p.m*. Wellesley Booksmith, Wellesley, Massachusetts *Note the new time here–there was a mix up. The 4:00 time listed on Wellesly’s website is incorrect. It really is 6:00 pm.

Friday, May 21, 4:00 p.m. The Flying Pig Bookstore, Shelburne, Vermont

If you live close to any of these cities, I would LOVE to see some of you there!

Also, I was interviewed yesterday by a very accomplished eleven year old named Summer. My favorite question: Do you believe in curses? Check out the entire interview here.

I can’t quite remember when I first heard about the Emerald Tablet. It might have been when I was searching grimoires, or possibly when thumbing through one of the hundreds of research books I’ve looked at over the years, but it has fascinated me ever since I first heard about it.

The Emerald Tablet is a thick slab of green emerald or crystal (depending on which legend you are reading) on which is enscribed the secrets of all alchemical knowledge. It was reported to have been fashioned by Thoth/Hermes Trismegistus himself, who is a legendary synthesis of both the Egyptian god, Thoth and the Greek god, Hermes.

Thoth is the god of learning and scribes, the god who gave wisdom to man, so it makes sense that he would have carved this tablet. He was also the god who gave magic to mankind, so clearly it is in keeping with his reputation to share alchemical knowledge with humanity.

There is some disagreement, however, as to whether alchemical knowledge was ever truly supposed to turn lead into gold, or whether it was always intended more as a philosophy or a spiritual process to help us move our thoughts onto a higher, less physical plane of existence.

Personally? I vote for both, that the alchemical knowledge contained in the tablet is both practical and spiritual.

Some legends say that the tablet was one of the most widely copied texts in the Alexandrian Library, and that when it was destroyed in the 4th century, it was spirited away into the desert, where it remains hidden.

Or did, until it ended up in the Museum of Legends and Antiquities’ basement. ☺

Below is Sir Isaac Newton’s translation of the Emerald Tablet (via Wikipedia, but confirmed through a number of other sources as well.)

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Hello all!

I hope everyone is so quiet because they have their nose buried in a good book!

My travel plans are firming up, and the information on where I’ll be talking and signing in May is trickling in. Two firm dates are:

Tuesday, May 18,  10:30 a.m.   Politics and Prose, Washington DC

Thursday, May 20,  6:00 p.m. Wellesley Booksmith, Wellesley, Massachusetts

And lastly, for those of you who just can’t enough about Egyptian magic, I blogged over at The Enchanted Inkpot this week, talking about that very thing!

In THEODOSIA AND THE EYES OF HORUS, Theo once again visits the British Museum. I thought you guys might be interested in seeing some historical pictures of the British Museum circa 1906. Not only is it a place Theo visits, it was also my model for her parents’ Museum of Legendds and Antiquities.

This is the Reading Room. For a long time, this was the only place scholars could find the preeminent works on archaeology or ancient Egypt.

These next two pictures are pictures of the actual display rooms. I think it’s interesting to see how much they made use of natural light back then, when electric light had only just begun to come into widespread use.

And lastly, this is a picture of how I envision the family’s sitting room there in the museum.

I think I’ve talked here before (and if I haven’t, I should!) about how a lot of what we think of as magic today, was actually part of Ancient Egypt’s religion. There are a number of terms I use in the books, that I thought I’d explain a little more in depth here, especially those having to do with the magic and curses Theo deals with.

The Egyptians idea of a soul actually included three parts; ba, ka, and akh.

The ka was the divine life force that each person possessed. The ka didn’t have a personality, per se, but very much needed a physical body to inhabit. This is why mummification was so important to the ancient Egyptians—they needed a place for their ka to live once they had died. All the food and objects left in their tombs were for the ka to use.

The ba was the part of the soul that held the person’s personality. It was the ba that journeyed to the Egyptian Underworld and risked being overcome by Underworld demons and dying a second time. If the ba failed in its journey through the Underworld, it died for a second, final time.

However, if the ba survived the journey through the Underworld, it was transformed into an akh, a spirit who lived with the gods and might even have some small powers of its own.

The ba that did not survive the Egyptian Underworld became restless and unhappy. These were called mut, and are a large part of what Theodosia has to deal with in her work with curses.

Hm. Maybe I should do an entire glossary for the books. There are an awful lot of unfamiliar or unusual words having to do with ancient Egypt in the book.

I’ve decided to award TWO prizes for this contests, one for a song suggestion and one for a book on magic title. AND, since I got my box of author copies, they will be real live BOOKS, not simply an ARC. Unless you want the Advanced Reader Copy.

And the winner’s are . . .

DEBBY for her wonderfully titled Awakening Your Inner Oracle by Euphemia, Daughter of The Pythia and

MIKE for the Strange Magic song suggestion. (PERFECT for Theo Four!)

When you guys have a chance, email me with your snail mail addresses and I’ll get your prizes out to you. Also, let me know if you’d like them signed to you or just signed.

Thanks for playing, everyone!

Hello, hello! I’ve finally finished up Book Four, THEODOSIA AND THE LAST PHARAOH, and sent it off to my editor. Yippee! Which means I have more time to blog.

For today, just some fun random things. And maybe—yes, I think so—a contest! I have one last, lonely Advanced Reader’s Copy of Book Three, THEODOSIA AND THE EYES OF HORUS to give away…

First of all, the Theodosia books are now available in an audio book! Very cool. I’ve been dying to know what voice they’d pick for Theo, and I think it’s a winner. I love it. If you are curious, you can listen to it here. (Click the green bar beneath the image of the book cover.)

And speaking of listening, I’ve gotten a few questions lately about what, if any, sort of music I listen to when writing the Theodosia books. I don’t actually listen to music while I write, but I will often listen to music before I write, to get me in the mood.

Below is my Theodosia playlist:

Manic Monday- The Bangles
Walk Like an Egyptian – The Bangles
Girls Just Want to Have Fun – Cyndi Lauper
Orange Crush – R.E.M. (I have no idea why, it just works)
Other Side of the World – KT Tunstall
She Bop – Cyndi Lauper
Rumble in Brighton – The Brian Setzer Orchestra
Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds – Elton John
It’s the End of the World As We Know It (And I Feel Fine) – R.E.M
Man On the Moon – R.E.M.
Suddenly I See – KT Tunstall

And here is where the contest comes in. To enter, simply post a comment and name a song that you think deserves a place on a Theodosia playlist. Be sure to post both the name of the song and the artist who performs it.

If you don’t have any songs you want to suggest, the other way to enter the contest is this: Invent the name of a magician and a book he wrote on ancient magic. There are lots of examples from the books: Mummies and Their Secrets by Sir Lynn N. Bandage, The Rites of the Dead by Sir Roger Mortis, A Dark Journey Through the Egyptian Underworld by Mordecai Black. (Note, yours don’t have to be on Egyptian magic, it can be any kind of magic!)

I’ll close the contest at midnight on Monday, March 29, then announce the winner on Wednesday, the 31st.

Have fun! And I can’t wait to see your answers!

Okay all you loyal fans! Here it is, the last serial chapter of  THEODOSIA AND THE EYES OF HORUS. The book itself should start showing up in bookstores within the next two or three weeks!

For those of you just tuning in, I am posting a chapter a month of Theodosia and the Eyes of Horus to help tide you over until the book comes out in April. I also need to post my standard spoiler alert:

WARNING, This chapter of Book Three, Theodosia and the Eyes of Horus, MAY CONTAIN SPOILERS FOR BOOK TWO, Theodosia and the Staff of Osiris. So if you haven’t read that yet, STOP RIGHT NOW. The rest of the chapter is up under the cut in order to protect those who haven’t read Book Two yet.

You’ll also notice that I’ve taken down Chapters Three and Four. Part of the agreement with my publisher is that I wouldn’t leave six chapters up at once.

CHAPTER SIX

THE EMERALDTABLET

“HENRY!”I YELLED. “What on earth are you doing? These aren’t toys, you know.”

Henry stared in horror at the tip of the lance blade, which was now slightly crumpled. “How was I to know you were going to bash it with a stone tablet?”

“What do you expect me to do when you come at me with a lance? Besides, I didn’t mean to. It was just instinct to get something between me and the point of the blade.”

I knelt down to examine the stele. Sure enough, a huge crack ran right through the middle. “Oh, Henry, you’ve destroyed it!”

Read the rest of this entry »

Gah! Once again I got so busy with Theo Four that I had to be reminded. Here is the next chapter of Theo Three, THEODOSIA AND THE EYES OF HORUS.

For those of you just tuning in, I am posting a chapter a month of Theodosia and the Eyes of Horus to help tide you over until the book comes out in April. I also need to post my standard spoiler alert:

WARNING, This chapter of Book Three, Theodosia and the Eyes of Horus, MAY CONTAIN SPOILERS FOR BOOK TWO, Theodosia and the Staff of Osiris. So if you haven’t read that yet, STOP RIGHT NOW. The rest of the chapter is up under the cut in order to protect those who haven’t read Book Two yet.

C H A P T E R  F I V E

HE N RY  MA K E S   A N   U N E X PE C T E D  D I S C OV E RY

STILTON HAD THE DRIVER DROP ME at the corner of the square then take him around to the back of the building so we wouldn’t be seen together and raise any suspicions.

I opened the front door of the museum and peered cautiously inside. The foyer was a jumbled mess, partially assembled display cases were scattered throughout and half-unpacked crates littered the floor. At first glance, it appeared empty. Then I spied Clive Fagenbush coming down the stairs, carrying an enormous crate.

Like a hound on a scent, he quickly found me.

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